May 15, 2017 (Vol. 37, No. 10)
URL:
http://mdcune.psych.ucla.edu
Rating:
Strong Points: Well-developed educational modules
Weak Points: None
Summary:
The UCLA Modular Digital Course in Undergraduate Neuroscience Education (MDCUNE) is—in addition to being a mouthful to say—a fantastic resource for neuroscience educators and students alike. The website contains a collection of twelve digital, inquiry-based, neuroscience laboratory modules that are completely open access, thereby providing students from a range of institutions the opportunity to dive into topics like bioinformatics, neuroanatomy, and behavior even in the absence of a physical laboratory space. The modules are diverse and include a virtual fish whose virtual neural circuit controlling its tail movement can be used to teach electrophysiology, an image database that allows students to explore sex differences in the song nuclei of songbirds, and a virtual rat (“Fraidy Rat”) that can be used to teach about fear conditioning. Each module is accompanied by extensive resources, such as primary literature citations, tutorials, and student worksheets; in addition to the actual software/image files.
